News

ALA backs Uluru Statement

29th Jun 2018

The Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) has endorsed the Uluru Statement from the Heart as the organisation’s new president, Ms Noor Blumer, commences in her role.

The ALA fully supports the recommendation of the Referendum Council and the Uluru Statement for a referendum to amend the Constitution, to provide for a representative body that gives Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander First Nations a Voice to the Commonwealth Parliament.

“The proposed amendment would serve a dual purpose. It would constitutionally empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with a voice to Parliament, but at the same time respect parliamentary supremacy and uphold the Constitution,” said Noor Blumer, National President 2018/19, ALA.

“The Uluru Statement powerfully expresses how the Australian legal system has disempowered and marginalised Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

“The law has been an instrument of oppression for Indigenous Australians for too long.

“We can see the effects of this every day in the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in prisons and detention centres, and in the way the law has been used to break up their families.

“The legal system has often failed to adequately represent Indigenous people and we believe the recommendation in the Uluru Statement is sensible, pragmatic and legally moderate.

The ALA believes that the ideas put forward in the discussion papers released this week by the ‘Uphold and Recognise’ organisation show that the Uluru Statement can be practically and realistically implemented.

The ALA has made a submission to the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.